And yet, one that found us smack in the middle of more new Star Wars content then we’ve had in a long time. A blockbuster sequel at the end of last year. A new story that should wash the dirty sound of prequel out of our mouths coming up. And not only a cartoon series that continues to pick up steam as it pulls from both movie trilogies, the Clone Wars cartoon and the decimated EU, but an actual LEGO Star Wars series.

All that new media bodes well for an infusion of fresh content for another years Star Wars Advent Calendar and is an excellent reason not to try something new that would appeal to the demographic. Like say… DC Comics. You could fill a calendar with Bat-vehicles alone. But I digress, because I can’t wait for a Snow BB-8 or Santa Zeb! Or to see how The Ghost looks as a micro, so lets get right to day one, shall we?

Fact: it’s impossible to build this and not keep singing War’s Low Rider to yourself. FACT. Beyond that, if you’ve seen suicide squad, it’s impossible to see exactly how deep the cut is with this set. In $49.99 and 433 pieces we get a better Joker and car than that movie could ever provide. It also seems to have more purple than every other set I’ve ever purchased… I think only the Harry Potter double-decker bus could potentially come close.

Of all the LEGO Movie sets, this one wasn’t on my radar at all. I’m sure I saw it in the previews, but I had all the figures in some form, and the Batgirl figure wasn’t close enough to the costume I like the most (post-35 N52 that was dark purple and absurdly practical)… it was good, but not enough over the version that was in Joker Steamroller set. More than that, it did smack of the whole Suicide Squad look, and Joker was by far the worst part of that film (Harley was the best, but not enough to cancel it out).

After building it, though, I’ll admit that I was wrong to ignore it, and connect it to suicide squad over just sticking to the weird spirit of old school Batman. Touches like the horn, the chicken, and the stereo system you can’t see have more character than I was expecting… and the most recent LEGO Batman trailer made it very clear what sort of Joker they were going for in the movie. By the time I was building 70906 The Joker Notorious Lowrider, I was excited to review it, and along with the Batmobile… may be my favorite of the stuff I’ve built thus far. And I have to thank LEGO for sending it over, because I probably would have ignored it otherwise.

LEGO posted these set of images on their facebook page earlier today, and includes images of two sets that, as far as I’m aware, havent been seen before: 70910 Scarecrow Special Delivery and 70911 Penguin’s Arctic Roller. Too bad for Nick that the latter isn’t a Zamboni, but now that he’s planted that idea in my head, we definitely need a LEGO Zamboni set.

I’m personally excited for the Clayface set; it looks pretty awesome as a brick-built monstrosity but Nick wasn’t too impressed. He’s dead to me now so I will happily take the mantle on reviewing that bad boy.

For this review of 41231 Harley Quinn to the rescue, let’s cut to the chase: this is the worst set out of the three preview sets for LEGO DC Super Hero Girls.

Now you may think that the reality of having to rank the three sets in order of greatness will result in one set that comes in last place. While that may be true, it doesn’t change the fact that this set just doesn’t have a whole lot of good points going for it. I can count on two fingers the number of reasons to get this set.

With the lead up to The LEGO Batman movie, now is the perfect time to pick up some older Batman sets. In case you missed it, 76035 Jokerland has reached “Sold out” status on LEGO [email protected] and is sold out at Amazon as well. Well Target has your back offering the set for sale with a 25% discount for just $89.99. Target REDCard holders will also net an addition 5% off. This, so far, is the only way to get Starfire and Beast Boy.

It’s been awhile since I felt excited about a Batman movie. My opinions on Batman v Superman are well-covered on this site, Killing Joke showed that even the normally amazing animation arm of DC could lay an absolute stinker, and we haven’t had a solid cartoon with just Batman in years. Then, the trailer for The LEGO Batman movie launched, and saying that I was excited would be an understatement. While the entirety of the LEGO Movie was pretty awesome, Batman was a highlight throughout. Let’s watch the trailer again just to get pumped…

I actually missed that this trailer came out a few weeks back, and it has a few new mixes. The whole thing is worth it just for the bit between the Joker and Batman, and talking about Superman. I was going to see this movie anyway, but now I’ll have to see it more than once just for that. Anyway, LEGO was kind enough to send us three of the LEGO Batman movie sets for review: 70905 That Batmobile, 70906 The Joker Notorious Lowrider, and 70909 Batcave Break-In. I reviewed the last version of the Batmobile, from Batman v Superman (which I liked 400% more than the movie itself), but let’s just say that this thing is a whole different beast.

The LEGO Batman Movie looks like a bottomless pit of potential sets, I mean, how can you watch that trailer and not want a Bat-Kayak, and they’re starting off strong by throwing the most iconic vehicle in… well, honestly, probably all comics (and you could argue, all movies and TV, I think). This beast weighs in at $59.99 in the US, and 581 pieces… and looks like an unholy fusion of Batman ’66, Batman ’89, and all of the snark of LEGO Batman rolled into one glorious package.

Just a heads up that the two LEGO Star Wars UCS sets, 75059 Sandcrawler and 10236 Ewok Village, have now reached “Sold Out” status on LEGO [email protected] It’s been sitting at “Retiring Soon” but is now sold out online and supplies may be depleted at Brand Retail locations. Fortunately, if you’re still on the hunt for one, Amazon and Walmart both have both sets still available for shipping. 10236 Ewok Village is even discounted slightly, $218.99, a 12% discount off of $249.99 MSRP. Whatever stock those retailers have will probably be the last of it.

In addition to the discounted Ferris Wheel set I posted earlier, Amazon is applying a massive discount on just about every LEGO Star Wars set currently available. Not sure if it’s officially part of a Cyber Monday promotion but the sheer number and the size of the discounts makes me think it is. You can get a savings anywhere from 15% and up to 37%. Here’s the list of sets followed by the discount percentage: